1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to board games for encouraging player progress toward a desirable goal. In particular, the invention relates to a game for encouraging adherence to a diet program.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art discloses a number of games having the dual goals of teaching good habits and providing diversion for the players. Some examples of these games include: U.S. Pat. No. 1,389,162--Reed, for encouraging health and hygiene habits; U.S. Pat. No. 1,631,505--Samis, for encouraging safety habits in children; U.S. Pat. No. 1,638,094--Gilmore, for teaching mental and moral lessons; and, U.S. Pat. No. 1,695,144--Edwards, for building character. Each of these games is competitive. Hazards for "bad" choices and benefits for "good" choices are encountered by the players during the progress of the game. Competition is said to be a major impetus for players to excel.
In addition to games wherein choices of proper behavior are rewarded, the prior art discloses numerous games in which chance rather than choice dictates the progress of the players. Although such games are said to simulate life, the fact that a player has little or no control over his progress tends to dilute the benefit of training. An example of such a game is U.S. Pat. No. 1,536,672--Hobbs, in which the roll of dice controls progress from office boy to president.
Some developments in the prior art have gone so far as to reward preferred traits or choices of players with food. Examples of such Patents are U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,064 Sonnabend, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,191,184--Durstewitz. The Durstewitz game is in fact directed to encouraging eating. A player takes his turn by unwrapping or partially consuming an article of food, thereby revealing the number of spaces he may move along the path towards the goal.
It should be noted that each of the foregoing games necessarily involves competition between players. Defeating the opposing player is one of the benefits of preferred performance. Where games in the prior art do not employ competition, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,953--Grasham, the player is intended to be pitted against the board. In such a game, either complexity or random distribution of hazard and benefit spaces provide a competitive opponent for the player. Thus competition is involved even in solitary games.
Inasmuch as the present invention is particularly useful for encouraging dieting, matters not typical to games in general are implicated. Inasmuch as eating habits are sometimes nervous habits, and dieters are often compulsive eaters, the proper reinforcement for a dieting program should be subtle. When conducted in a group therapy environment, possibly under control of a psychologist, dieters can controllably support and reinforce one another with substantial success. The present invention provides a means for exertion of such control, and for mutual support and reinforcement. Optimum results are likely to be obtained for unsupervised dieters operating in private, free of frustrating or threatening comments which tend only to increase nervousness and compulsive eating. In any event, if more than a single player is involved, the optimum diet game should emphasize mutual support rather than all out competition.